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No Spurious Solution

19. February 2013 - 10:11

The Cypriot people will never agree to a spurious solution but will continue to struggle for their historical inalienable rights, Archbishop Chrysostomos has said.

His Beatitude was commenting on an editorial published in the Financial Times which linked the present financial crisis facing the island with moves to revitalise relations between the European Union and Turkey.

The article referred to the stalled accession talks between Turkey and the EU and concluded "It would also be a shame to waste Cyprus's financial crisis. Is there no leverage there to inject some reason into the wrangle about the island's future?"
Turkish troops invaded Cyprus in 1974 and continue to occupy 37 per cent of its territory, in gross violation of repeated U N resolutions calling for their withdrawal. Ankara also refuses to recognize the Cyprus government or comply with obligations it has undertaken towards the EU as part of its European quest.

In a written statement, His Beatitude said:

''The article in the Financial Times that 'it would be a shame if the financial crisis in Cyprus was not used as possible leverage to press for a solution of the Cyprus problem' cannot but provoke indignation (if not abhorrence) among the Cypriot people. The article has apparently been written by somebody who is not conversant with history and who examines everything from the point of view of money.

''We are certain that the article writer has never studied Greek history and has never been taught that struggles for freedom and other values are not waged by rich people...but by peoples imbued with lofty principles, of which freedom holds supreme position.

''The Cypriot people have proved through their age-long history that they know how to fight and even sacrifice themselves if necessary for their ideals.

''We as Church of Cyprus are determined to stand by the new government and help it struggle for a just and viable solution of the Cyprus issue.

''We would like in the meantime to reassure the Financial Times editorial writer that there is no possibility of a Greek hand signing a solution envisaging two states, as Davutoglu and Erdogan aspire in their dreams.

''Therefore the FT editorial writer and people of the same thinking should stop hoping that the Cypriot people will, under the burden of their present difficulties, agree to a spurious , adulterated solution.

''Our people, headed by the Church and the political leadership to emerge from the elections, will stand firm in their demand for their inalienable historical rights".